How can I preserve my hard earned muscle mass on endurance days? How do you eat and refuel on those days?

I like going for multi day hikes, bike tours and raves. I do not know how to fuel my body properly. I am at the end of a cut and I am afraid I will lose muscles on those days. Hence, I'd like to be prepared for the future.

My naive approach is to roughly calculate the kcal it takes and eat that more on that day. E.g.

C = kph * hours

where C is the total calorie consumption and kph stands for kalories per hour.

I think this is too naive. I read that people eat gels during marathons. Is that also the way to go for this? Is there something comparable that is natural? I am not sure which source is good and trustworthy and which source is just pseudo-science.

E.g. this post from muscleandfitness which states

additional calories burned are replaced using a macronutrient ratio of 75% carbohydrates, 20% protein, and 5% fat

Or racecast writes

• Start fueling at 40–45 min — not when you feel tired.
• Target 60–90 g/hr of carbs for marathons (30 g/hr if you're new to fueling).
• 90 g/hr requires dual-transport fuels (glucose + fructose) + 4–6 weeks of gut training.
• Chase standard gels with water, never sports drink.
• Hydrate to thirst — 400–800 ml/hr is typical; heat raises this.
• Caffeine gel at 45–65% of race time for peak effect at miles 18–22.

I lost >40kg fat. How much more to go? 3~5kg? How to deal with the excess skin? Can I even do anything about it?

My question primarily stems from videos such as this one.

I'm trying to understand RIR (reps in reserve) and proximity-to-failure training. I’ve read that 1-3 RIR is the sweet spot for growth with taking only 10% of working sets to near-failure, but I’m confused about how external factors affect that number.

In the first 2 and a half months of this year, I suffered heavily from too much intensity at the gym resulting in nightmare levels of systemic fatigue. My first question is:

####Question #1 -- Can I manipulate my rest times to reach "effective reps" faster?

The longer I rest, the more reps-in-reserve I have at the initiation of my 2nd or 3rd set. Can I "gamify" my rest times and try to aim to start my 2nd & 3rd set as soon as I feel like I'll be able to do a max of 8 reps? That way my first or second rep is already close to failure and counts as an effective rep? Or have I completely lost the plot?

####Question #2 -- Relative verses absolute RIR math

Let’s say I get 4 hours of sleep, eat a 12-pack of Snickers bars for breakfast, get into a 3-hour pointless fight with my wife or girlfriend, and show up to the gym at my normal time. Is it possible that even if I push myself in working sets to near failure, that I won't have done any effective reps and simply performed a bunch of junk volume because I'm mentally unfit to gain strength or hypertrophy? My reason for asking is because I do a tremendous amount of effort getting mentally & physically ready for my gym sessions. It definitely helps me lift harder and put in more volume.

####Question #3 -- Does proximity to failure in earlier sets complicate the RIR math in sets done in the latter half of my workout?

From my own experiments, I'm able to perform about 40% more weight on the final 60% of my working sets if I "phone it in" on my first 2 compound lifts (3 sets each) at the beginning of my workout, after warming up with 10 warmup reps at 50% of 1RM. My reason for sharing the AST screenshot at beginning of this post is because it's a measure of liver/muscle damage and is my only testament that I tried to bring "David Goggins intensity" to the gym everyday for the first 2 and a half months of this year.

I ask these questions as a beginner because I'm new to weightlifting. I've been doing it less than a year. My knowledge primarily comes from youtubers such as Flow High Performance, Huberman, Andy Galpin, Jeff Nippard, and Mike Israetel.

It's sugar alcohol, erythritol.

I used to think shadow boxing was just warming up. Boring filler before the "real" training.

Then my coach made me shadow box for 6 rounds straight. No bag, no pads, just me and a mirror. It was humiliating. My form was trash, my footwork was lazy, and I was dropping my hands after every combo.

Now I do 3 rounds of shadow boxing before every session and my technique has improved more from that than from anything else. You can't hide bad habits when there's no bag to absorb your sloppy punches.

Anyone else have a shadow boxing routine? What do you focus on?

All I wanted was: set rounds, set rest, press start, hear a bell. That's it.

Every timer app I found was either full of ads, required a subscription, or had 47 features I didn't need. I just want to hit the bag without watching a 30-second ad between rounds.

So I built BoxTime — a dead-simple round timer for boxing, Muay Thai, MMA, whatever. You set your rounds, rest time, and go. No account, no subscription, no interruptions.

Features I actually use:

• Custom round/rest times
• Warning bell at 10 seconds
• Different sounds for round end vs rest end
• Works with screen off (this was huge for me)

But honestly, even a kitchen timer taped to your wall works. The point is having STRUCTURE in your training. Random bag work without timed rounds is just cardio with extra steps.

My brother is an amazing person. Has a great job, wife, family, etc.. but he's 6 feet tall and 145 pounds and in his mid 30's. He just got back into weight-lifting by re-starting his adjustable dumbbell program and he texted me this pic earlier of his workout today.

I don't want to give him a firehose of information as I watch/listen to about 2 hours of fitness & hypertrophy videos per day. His motivation is also very fickle and I absolutely do not want for my advice to make him feel like he needs to push himself too hard (his burnout risk is high). He also has been thin his whole life and says he wants to put on more weight but he always goes back to his old eating habits after 2-3 weeks and loses any weight that he gained.

Muscle growth is metabolically expensive so should I just recommend that he train only 1-2 muscle groups (such as shoulders and biceps) if I'm 100% confident he won't eat more?

He is motivated enough to try but his effort is mostly wasted since he doesn't want to invest into a real gym membership because he had a nightmarish experience trying to cancel his old gym membership 5 years ago so that ship has metaphorically sailed. He also doesn't eat enough calories nor protein.

What am I missing? I feel like there's some helpful advice I could probably give him but I'm unable to figure out what to tell him that he should mostly focus on (since he's still a beginner). Any/all recommendations for how to traverse this situation/opportunity would be greatly appreciated. 💪

Hey all, hoping someone can chime in here. Ime closing in on my mid 50s, and have fallen far out of shape. The past decade has been a loss (physically) and covid made it worse. Post covid i have discovered that ive lost all willpower/discipline when it comes to dieting. I've lost considerable amounts of weight twice in my life, and both times slagged off and put it all back on for various reasons/excuses. My recent efforts have just all fallen flat.

Ongoing depression finally forced my hand, to do a couple of things I was previously very resistant to... I got my testosterone checked, and it was low, so I have gotten testopel treatment.. and that has made a definite difference in several ways. I always said I would not supplement testosterone... But I feel better today than I have in years. It hasn't been a cure all, but in general, it has made me feel better. The second thing, was finally getting on the standard GLP1. Again, something I never thought I would do, but again, desperate times...

For more background, I am a generally large framed man with a comfortably fit weight of around 260-280. Less than that I start to look sickly. However, I am well above that, and around 340, though I am losing. I am going to the gym and since I am doing solo workouts, mostly using machines, and still trying to figure out the weight ranges to use on them. It has been a slow process. I have always worked out with free weights, but I feel safer now on the machines, since I don't have a spotter. Right now I am just doing a push day, a pull day and a leg day. As I proceed I plan on adding reps to duplicate muscle groups in each of these.. but right now, I am just doing 3 sets of each exercise.

My primary focus is currently to keep moving and keep at it in the gym. I do not expect to get ripped, but I do want to build muscle.. I hope that getting some power back is possible. Anyhow, I felt like that was all a lot of background for my main question... Is a whey powder like Gold Standard something I should be taking to supplement my exercising? I used it when I was very regularly in the gym before, but I was also younger and much more fit. I didn't know if that owuld be considered flushing money down the toilet or not. I have already ordered some Creatine HCL, on the recommendation of a trainer at the gym. I have done some reading on it, and realize there is some debate on if it is better than Creatine monohydrate, worse, or generally undecided... But I figured something was better than nothing, and I didn't want to deal with possible side effects from the monohydrate.

At any rate, I appreciate any input that anyone more learned on the topic can offer.

Thanks!

Currently, I am in a cut. I try not to overeat. Eating enough protein and more than TDEE-500kcal. Sometimes my calorie deficit is larger than 500kcal, especially if I go cycling or hiking. On those days, I simply add another protein rich meal consisting of Tofu and some vegetables, just to get enough calories out of fear to lose muscles. Do I have to do that?

When is an aggressive cut good? Only if you need to get to a certain weight for a competition?

I can not find any primary or reputable source, only blog posts about it.

Edit: this sounds good https://macrofactor.com/cutting-calculator/

With energy deficits smaller than about 500 Calories per day (which would equate to losing about 1 pound or 0.5kg per week), subjects (on average) were able to experience a bit of body recomposition (losing fat, while gaining a little muscle). With deficits larger than 500 Calories per day, subjects tended to lose lean mass, with the rate of lean mass loss increasing as energy deficits grew

Meaning, avoiding an aggressive cut is advisable if you don't have to get below a certain weight

Which lifting belt can you recommend (for amateurs) in Germany/Europe?

I've read strengthshop a couple of times but that may have been just ads, so I don't know if I simply pay an ad premium.

Belt A for ~50€ is made out of Amara Synthetic Leather. That should be good, right?

Belt B for 100€ is made from premium synthetic Amara leather. Probably the machine had more room to move around. The belt looks easier to use.

As an amateur, not looking to become a professional, but I still training two times a week, what would you recommend? 50€ is an OK price to pay for a belt I guess, 100 looks a bit expensive.

A: Weightlifting Double Prong Buckle Tapered Belt, Black - 8MM B: Black Lever Belt, 13mm - IPF Approved

My little hands are weak and I'm having trouble holding on! Do you guys have any strap recommendations? The Internet is useless ai advertising garbage

Edit: bonus if they don't have big logos screaming EXTREME MAX SKULL DEATH GRIP or other "tough guy"stuff

It's the one-rep max calculation of Flexify. How weak am I? How much progress did I leave on the table for not working out properly? That's what you get if you only fuck around and don't follow a proper program.

It's in kg and I'm in a cut. I really like how strong I became

Do you move your (lower) back back and forth during the exercise?

I find mixed recommendations online. so far, I think it is better to keep the lower back stiff and focus on arms, shoulders and upper back. Also, you don't move the back when doing barbell rows which is the same movement.

For example, jeff nippard moves his back at 6:00 min in this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PAXkl-AdJFg not as strong as others do, but still.

Here, they keep the back perfectly straight https://www.muscleandstrength.com/exercises/seated-row.html

In my gym many people (all that I witness) move their back.

So most of us are pretty firmiliar with the concept of home gyms. What I'm building is a bit different. I'm building a "small 1 bedroom apartment gym".

This has some differing challenges. For example, when I looked for a bench press a few months ago, I COULD have spent a few hundred dollars on a really solid built bench with no give. But in a small apartment gym the first and most important question is "where am I going to put this?"

And in my case, I bought a bench press at the end of December, which appears to no longer be on amazon anymore. But I found this one which looks identical just to give you an idea of what I went with. Just imagine this, with no logo printed on it. I swear this company just bought the one I have, and printed their logo on it. Otherwise mine looks exactly the same.

So, you can see how it folds up.

Well now I've got an oppertunity to buy either this machine for $75. Condition is said to be "as new as possible".

Or I could buy this machine for $575. Condition is listed as new.

There's a $500 gap between the two, but it looks like I could put either one under my bed.

Is there any reason I don't get the $75 one? Or is the total gym THAT good, that it justifies an extra $500?

I am looking to get a budget exercise bike for my wife and I to use. Neither of us are super active but want something basic and simple that we can use for 30 minutes or so a few times a week to keep us in shape. We have a new baby so need something at our house that is fast and simple. Doing some research I was thinking about getting this YOSUDA exercise bike with Magnetic resistance bike

I want something that is magnetic to reduce wear and tear and will fit our sizes. (I am 6 ft 1" and she is 5 ft. 1"). It says it works for 6 foot so it should work for me if just a little small. Has anyone used this? Do they like it? Is it cheap junk?

I was wondering why people warm up in sweatshirts. I guess it helps

I've been hitting the gym 3 times a week for about two years now and seen pretty good results. Well, life happened and I can't really find the time for that anymore, so I'm trying to adapt my routine for twice a week. Was wondering if anybody has an opinion on it.

For most of my fitness journey I've been doing GZCLP with variation exercises for tier 2 and the rep range for tier 1 modified to 3x5, then 3x4, then 3x3, because who even has the time to do 10 sets of 1 rep? Now that I will only be going to the gym twice a week my genius idea is the smash the 4 GZCLP days into 2, while following a similar progression scheme to the original. Something like this:

Day 1:

• T1 Barbell squat
• T1 Overhead press
• T2 Romanian deadlift
• T2 Incline dumbbell bench press
• T3 Lat pulldown

Day 2:

• T1 Deadlift
• T1 Barbell bench press
• T2 Split squats
• T2 Dumbbell shoulder press
• T3 Lat pulldown

So far I've done one week of this and feeling ok. I tried to superset the T2 lifts, but the general fatigue is getting a bit too much that way so I'll probably stop. Any thoughts on what I can change or do you guys think this is a balanced enough workout?

I started working out six months ago, and today I reached my 69th session. I’m currently cutting because I want to get leaner. My progress is slow, but I’m definitely moving forward, and losing weight too.

It’s incredibly important to track the weights I lift; otherwise, I’d have no idea whether I’m making progress. It’s not always steady, I go back and forth with my working weights since there are good and bad days. As long as I record everything and see overall improvement, I think that’s perfectly fine.

I do wonder if I could lift more, and progress faster, if I weren’t cutting. I eat about 1-1.2 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight, following a vegan diet, which means lots of tofu and seitan.

I focus on the big compound lifts and add isolation work whenever I feel like it. Sometimes I do certain exercises, sometimes I skip them. it’s roughly a full-body workout with a touch of fuckarounditis.

Today, I confidently pressed 8×27.5 kg, 8×32.5 kg, and 8×32.5 kg per dumbbell on the incline bench, which made me really happy. My goal is to bench 100 kg within a year. Let’s see if I can make it happen!